


working theory

by grahamcracker76



Category: White Collar
Genre: Developing Relationship, Episode 01x01: Pilot, Episode Related, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24069304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grahamcracker76/pseuds/grahamcracker76
Summary: Suddenly there’s not one sun in his sky, but two, and he’s orbiting around them both.
Relationships: Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey
Comments: 8
Kudos: 62





	working theory

**Author's Note:**

> More fic for quarantine 2020! As some of you might know, I’ve been rewatching some old favorites recently, including White Collar. I love rewatching this show especially because I have fond memories of watching it every week when it was first on tv and having to wait a whole week for the next episode but now you can just watch half a season in one sitting! I’m noticing so much more watching it now with a new perspective.
> 
> Note as of 5/25: I originally planned to do a series of White Collar timestamp drabbles in order... yeah, change of plans. I am watching them too fast to slow down and write one per episode, and inspiration strikes me at random times so now I will be posting separate stories instead. Thanks for bearing with me!

**01x01: Pilot**

**Five things Peter Burke knows about Neal Caffrey, and one thing he is just learning.**

**One: Neal is brilliant**

Peter has known this all along, of course. There’s a reason Neal’s only been caught once; there’s a reason it took Peter three years of his life to do it; there’s a reason they only managed to get him on bond forgery. Neal Caffrey is _smart,_ and Peter likes smart. He likes to work for his wins, and no one ever made him work for it like Neal did. 

So yeah, Peter can admit that chasing Caffrey was the most fun he’s had in years. He can admit that he’d liked it, more than he probably should have. He can admit that putting him away felt strangely anticlimactic after all these years. He can admit, if only to himself, that life will be a little more boring without him - that he might even miss him.

But Neal is a criminal, and when criminals get caught, they go to prison. Peter knows that better than anyone. So he puts Caffrey in cuffs, watches him go behind bars, tries not to think of him as _Neal,_ and puts it all out of his mind.

Life goes back to normal, and Peter tries to convince himself that nothing has changed. And really, nothing has changed. He still has his job, and his lovely wife, and his house and his dog to come home to at the end of the day. Everything is the same as always - it’s Peter himself who has changed. He just doesn’t realize how much until Diana comes to him with the news. Caffrey has escaped, and for the first time in more than three years, Peter feels truly alive.

  
  


**Two: Neal is impulsive**

They ask him: what makes a guy like Caffrey do something this stupid with only a few months left on his sentence? When Peter sees Kate on that security tape, he knows. Do you know her? they ask him, and oh, he does. Because he spent three years of his life chasing Neal Caffrey halfway around the world, and Kate Moreau was always at his side… until the day she left.

Peter knows Kate, but he knows Neal even better. When he sees that Caffrey stopped shaving that same day, Peter knows he started planning his escape the minute Kate walked away. So yeah, Neal Caffrey is impulsive. But he’s also smart, which is how he got out in the first place.

They think they might find him on the road - but Peter knows better than that by now. “You’re not going to catch Caffrey with wanted posters and road blocks,” he tells them. “Let’s go find Kate. Find Kate and we find Neal.”

They head out, and Peter feels that old familiar thrill, like a current running just beneath his skin. He’s chasing Neal Caffrey again, and this time he knows he can get him - he is 1 and 0, after all.

  
  


**Three: Neal doesn’t like guns**

Another thing Peter knows about Neal: he’s never resorted to violence. He never uses weapons to pull his jobs - he always finds another way, a smarter way. So yeah, he already knows that Neal doesn’t like guns. But Peter’s tracked him down again, and when you’re the arresting officer, you have to ask.

“Been a while,” he says, trying for casual as he approaches.

He hears Neal’s sharp intake of breath, a shaky, wet thing, and Peter allows himself a moment of sympathy. This is Neal at his most vulnerable, and Peter knows it because he hadn’t even tried to run - he’d just say here, waiting for them. There was nothing for him to run for anymore. “Yeah,” Neal answers, “a few years, give or take.”

“You carrying?” Peter asks, even though he already knows the answer.

“You know I don’t like guns,” Neal says as he looks up to meet Peter’s gaze for the first time in years, his eyes empty and sad.

Peter sighs. “They ask me, what makes a guy like you pull a boneheaded escape with four months to go?”

Neal’s lips purse tight. “Guess you figured it out,” he says.

Peter nods. “Kate says adios to you in prison, gets busy with her disappearing act, and your trail ends here,” he says. “But you already know that.” It’s always been like this, with them - it’s like a dance, like a game, with Peter always two steps behind. But this time, the game is over. There are no more dance moves, at least not for Neal. Not now.

“I missed her by two days,” Neal admits, his voice soft, defeated.

“Still,” Peter says, “it only took you a month and a half to escape a supermax. Damn impressive.” It’s true, of course, but he knows empty words won’t be worth much to Neal now. Peter almost wishes he could do something about this whole mess - that he could offer something other than a cold prison cell. But that’s the way it is, with them. They always end up here.

“All clear,” he signals the officers, “subject identified and unarmed.”

“We surrounded?” Neal asks.

Peter nods. “We’re going to give you another four years for this, you know,” he says.

“I don’t care,” Neal tells him, stubborn to the end. Then he looks up at Peter, takes him in, and seems to really _see_ him for the first time. “Was that the same suit you were wearing the last time you arrested me?” he asks, incredulous.

Peter shakes his head. “Classics never go out of style,” he says.

For a moment, he wonders what this would have been like in another life, him and Caffrey. The banter, the dance, it’s always been like this. Fun, easy, thrilling. Life to the max. In another world, he thinks they might have been friends. But in this world, he’s arresting Neal Caffrey and putting him behind bars for the second time. In this world, this is how their story goes, and Peter can’t see another ending in sight.

  
  


**Four: Neal can con his way anywhere**

Of course Neal can con eveyone and anyone - it’s what he does. Peter’s just never seen Neal at work in person before, and it’s a little disconcerting to be on the other end of it. So Neal gets his little deal, even though Peter knows damn well it must be a con, although he can’t work out how - his own “working theory” hadn’t held much water, even with Elizabeth. “Keep working,” she said fondly, and Peter is - apparently with Neal, now.

“Where are we going?” Neal asks.

“Your new home,” Peter tells him.

Neal doesn’t like the place they’d found him - of course he doesn’t, Peter thinks ruefully. Anyone else would’ve been grateful just to be out of prison - but Neal always needs something better, something more. Well, tough. Peter’s worked for everything he has, and now Neal can too. “If you find something better for the same price, you can take it,” Peter says.

He should have known Neal would take him at his word.

The new place is perfect - even the coffee is amazing. Peter doesn’t know how Neal managed to score a place with a lady who doesn’t seem to have a problem with convicted felons - but it seems he did.

“Hey, you said if I could find a better place for the same price, I should take it,” Neal says, and Peter scoffs.

“All this was seven hundred a month?” he asks, and Neal just shrugs, completely unrepentant.

For some reason, this is what sends Peter over the edge, making his blood boil, and he storms away. Here is Neal in this fancy apartment with these fancy suits and the fancy coffee and he’s here because he conned his way in and somehow it’s all perfectly fine. What if the rest of it is a con, too? What if Peter himself is being conned right now, and he just can’t see it?

This is stupid, so so stupid, and he can’t believe he was actually starting to _like_ Caffrey. He just hasn’t to remember that he can’t trust him, no matter how much of an impression Neal makes with his stupid suits and his stupid hat and his stupid smile.

“You look like a cartoon,” he says, because he can’t say anything else - because his true thoughts are such a mess he doesn’t know what might come out. Peter is learning that it’s not just Caffrey he doesn’t trust - he doesn’t trust himself around Caffrey. But Peter Burke is no fool, and he won’t let Neal make him one.

  
  


**Five: Neal is a romantic**

Everywhere Neal goes, people always ask him, did you really escape prison for a girl? And yeah, he really did - because Neal Caffrey is a true romantic, through and through.

He broke out of prison for a girl - _the_ girl, Peter is sure Neal would say. The thing is, there’s no girl anymore, because she ran. The bottle meant goodbye - at least that’s what Neal told him.

But Peter knows full well that Neal hasn’t given up, that he’s still looking for Kate, even if he claims he’s not. Because Neal Caffrey is a romantic, and he always will be.

Peter has always known this about Neal. He never thought that Neal’s romantic streak might affect him, too, until that night when Neal Caffrey of all people brings up Peter’s wedding anniversary.

“Yeah, she’s into it. El likes watching the Giants, can you believe it?” he’s saying.

Neal frowns. “Even in your wedding anniversary?” he asks.

  
  


**+One: Neal is more than just a file**

Peter is lucky he doesn’t crash the damn car. His first thought is a resounding chorus of _oh shit oh shit oh shit,_ closely followed by _how the hell does Neal Caffrey know when my wedding anniversary is?_

A better question might have been: _why didn’t I know?_ But then, Peter already knows the answer. Too many hard days working long hours, and he’d forgotten. He doesn’t have anything planned, hasn’t even thought about it, and if it hadn’t been for Neal… 

He glances over at Neal, who’s still staring at him across the car. Neal, who his own wife said she’d been competing with for three years. Neal, who he’s still chasing, even when they’re together. Neal, who apparently knows him better than he knows himself.

“What?” Neal asks, rolling his eyes. “You know everything about my life, you don’t think I know yours? When you were chasing me, you knew my shoe size, you knew what time I got up in the morning…”

Peter shakes his head. “That was the job,” he objects, and Neal huffs in response.

“Oh, so a relationship isn’t work?” he asks, and that’s when Peter loses it, because that is just not on.

“You don’t get to lecture me about relationships,” he says. “My wife didn’t change her identity and flee the country to get away from me.”

Neal stares at him openmouthed. For a moment, Peter sees nothing but shock and hurt in his Neal’s eyes before his face closes off and he looks away.

 _Dammit,_ Peter thinks. He’s spent so long thinking of Neal Caffrey in theory alone. He’s thought of Neal as a case study, as a file he keeps in his desk, as a puzzle for him to solve. He keeps forgetting that Neal is flesh and blood, that he’s really here sitting beside him. He keeps forgetting that he can hurt Neal, maybe more than anyone, because Neal is right. Peter does know everything about him - he’s just failing spectacularly at knowing how to use that knowledge when faced with the person in front of him. “That was harsh,” he says, because it’s true. “I didn’t mean it.”

Neal shakes his head. “Yeah, you did,” he says, tight and angry. “Did she really flee the country? France? She go to France?”

“I don’t know,” Peter says, because he knows the minute he says a word, Neal will be gone. He scrambles for a way to save the conversation. “What am I gonna do?” he asks, but Neal shakes his head. 

“Nope, no more relationship advice from this side of the car,” Neal says.

He doesn’t look at Peter or speak to him again for the rest of the ride, and Peter is worried he’s ruined everything by sticking his foot in his mouth yet again. He’s worried that after this, Neal will run and not look back.

But the next day, Neal is the same as ever. Neal is impulsive and reckless and brilliant, casually breaking his radius to talk his way into Peter’s house and onto Peter’s couch where he proceeds to flirt with his wife and his dog, and Peter too, all in a few short minutes.

“I’m going to put you back in prison,” Peter grumbles, and dials the number, although they all know he doesn’t mean it.

“You should tell him,” El says to Neal.

Peter raises his eyebrows.

“I know who the Dutchman is,” Neal says, and Peter’s world spins, reorienting, axis tilting wildly in search of true north. For the first time, he has a premonition of where this might be headed: El and Neal, both. Suddenly there’s not one sun in his sky, but two, and he’s orbiting around them both.

 _Oh, I am so screwed,_ he thinks, and then puts it out of his mind. Compartmentalizing - he’s good at it, or at least he used to be.

El, of course, just laughs at him. “So that’s Neal Caffrey,” she says. “He’s nice - we should keep him.” Peter gapes at her, and she just smiles and pats his shoulder. “Go solve the case, hon,” she tells him. “We’ll talk later.”

So he kisses his wife, solves another case, and for a moment, all seems right with the world. Everything else - they’ll deal with it as it comes. It’s their new normal, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> So, the Pilot!!! I have so many feels about the first episode. I still wish we had a prequel with their whole cat and mouse chase because that would be AWESOME. But that’s what fic is for, right?


End file.
